Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic contender for the US Senate seat in Massachusetts currently occupied by Senator Scott Brown (R-MA), recently released a statement that’s getting considerable traction around the web that I found somewhat misguided and worth a comment:

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there–good for you.

But I want to be clear. You moved your roads to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid ot educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory…”

Here’s the thing. When law enforcement can directly profit from the enforcement they conduct, they have financial incentives to seize property at will from both people who are poor and politically weak as well as people who are rich and powerful. In a world where the rule of law is enforced by people who “eat what they kill” as one drug task force agent put it, no one is safe from the predations of men with guns who want your stuff.

So what about Elizabeth Warren? I think she is a nice, fairly intelligent person who means well, and may even make a good legislator. But Americans deserve the protection of a robust rule of law from tyrants who cloak themselves as judges, prosecutors, or agency bureaucrats, and her statement falls far short of recognizing that.

1 Response » to “Elizabeth Warren should know better”

The mythical Social Contract she cites is only defensible if you disregard all of the massive downsides that the vast majority of people face at the hands of the people in charge of acquiring and distributing the ‘collectively owned’ resources. There’s also no reason to believe that violent consolidation of resources is the only means to provide universally recognized benefits like roads and peace officers and fire fighters.

If a mugger steals my wallet and then buys me lunch, the lunch may be delicious and filling, but it doesn’t make up for the theft. It’s not the only (and certainly not the best) way to get fed. Declaring that I need food isn’t a valid argument in favor of mugging.